The Once and Future King
by Nikolai-Tesla
Summary: Will grimaced slightly. Tesla always managed to show up at the worst possible times, and he definitely had a bad effect on Magnus. Plus, he had this uncanny ability to make Will feel underdressed, even inside the Sanctuary in the dead of night...
1. Chapter 1

Everyone in the Sanctuary was fast asleep. Or so Will Zimmerman thought as he padded quietly down one of the long, empty halls. Halfway down the corridor he froze, his heart thudding wildly as he heard a faint _tink_, _tink_, _tink_.

Was there an intruder in the Sanctuary? _Only one way to find out_, he thought as he crept towards the apparent source of the noise. The closer he got, the calmer he felt. He seriously doubted that anyone would break into the building at three in the morning just to borrow some lab equipment. Maybe Magnus had just... lost track of time while working on an important project.

"Hey, Mag-" he started to say, poking his head around the door to the lab, but he trailed off, looking confused. "-nus... What are _you_ doing in here?"

The object of his query didn't even bother to glance up from his work, looking quite pleased with himself. Nikola Tesla sat perched on a stool in front of an electron microscope, one hand wielding a scalpel and the other wrapped around a large glass of Chardonnay.

Will grimaced slightly. Tesla always managed to show up at the worst possible times, and he definitely had a bad effect on Magnus. Plus, he had this uncanny ability to make Will feel underdressed, even inside the Sanctuary in the dead of night. Will looked self-consciously down at his faded flannel bottoms and plain white tee. Tesla, as usual, looked dapper as ever, dressed to the nines with a vest and everything. Even a pair of welder's goggles couldn't ruin the picture.

"Still having nightmares?" Nikola asked smugly, ignoring Will's question entirely. "The mother hen said I might notice you prowling the halls at night."

"Magnus told you about that?" Will asked with indignation.

"Not Helen. The big, hairy one. What's-his-name," Nikola said, setting down the scalpel and pushing back the goggles so that they were suspended in his unruly hair.

"What? He-" Will spluttered. "Hasn't anyone here heard of doctor-patient confidentiality?"

"Oh, so Tall, Dark, and Furry has a doctorate, does he?" Nikola threw up his hands in slight exasperation.

"Two, actually. Medicine and astrophysics."

"Of course he does."

"I can't believe the Big Guy told you about that," Will seethed, returning to the problem at hand. "You're not even part of the team. You're just a... a washed-up old has-been, still bent on taking over the world."

"Watch it, pipsqueak," Nikola cautioned, glaring at Will down the blade of his scalpel. "Hasn't anyone ever told you to respect your elders? Besides," he continued smugly, "from what I hear, you haven't been much use to the 'team' lately, yourself."

"Oh, did the Big Guy tell you that, too?"

"No, that one _was_ Helen." Nikola grinned playfully at Will, who just glared back, mouth slightly open.

"Okay, fine," Nikola relented, turning back to a slide he was preparing for viewing under the microscope. "She may have really said something along the lines of being 'worried about you endangering yourself with a lack of focus.'" He smiled cockily at the slide while muttering, "But we both know what she _truly_ meant."

Will ignored his jab, but he still looked rather sullen. "You never said what you were doing in here."

"Neither did you," Nikola retorted smugly. "But, if you must know, I'm looking at a very... interesting blood sample. Care to take a look?"

"What I'm _not_ doing here, Dr. Evil, is playing 'mad scientist' with you. I don't trust you. Not after you tried to kill Magnus."

"That was _one time_!" Nikola snapped. "When are you people going to let that go?"

Will made a frustrated noise in the back of his throat and his fingers looked as if they were itching to wrap themselves around the other man's throat.

"Just come over here and look at this," Nikola ordered him, standing up from his seat on the stool. "I promise I don't bite. Not anymore, at least."

"You don't scare me, Tesla. Magnus told us you never drank human blood."

"Oh, she's no fun," Nikola pouted, but he quickly bounced back as Will rolled his eyes and approached the microscope. "I can guarantee you've never seen anything like this before," he said, gesturing to the slide.

Will bent down to look into the microscope. He would never admit it to Tesla, but he was rather curious about what had the man so worked up.

"I'm not sure what I'm looking at here," Will admitted as he examined the slide. "It just looks like a bunch of strange blobs. But- wait a minute. Are these... blood cells?" He looked up at Tesla for confirmation.

Nikola nodded with a grin. "Aren't they beautiful?"

"Not exactly the word I'd use," Will muttered under his breath. "They don't look like any blood cells I've ever seen."

"That's because they're not human."

Will looked confused. "But then, what...?" His eyes slowly dawned in realization. He nearly laughed at the scientist's audacity, shaking his head. "The multipedes."

"Give the man a prize," Nikola said smoothly, holding a second slide up to the lab's fluorescent light to examine it. "Now, I know you're not _exactly_ a scientist," he smiled smugly at Will, "but do you notice anything else interesting about the blood?"

Will rolled his eyes but returned his attention to the slide, trying to remember everything he knew from college biology courses. "Well, the cells aren't red, obviously. But they _sort of _look like red blood cells."

He noticed that the cells were indeed similar to red blood cells in that they had the same approximate shape of normal, healthy erythrocytes, but they were bigger and strangely colored, almost black.

"Right again," Nikola said, and if Will didn't know better he might have thought the man was _proud_. "Notice how the cells are larger than normal human blood cells? The effects of the source blood increase the osmotic pressure in the body, making the cells hypotonic. And they're so dark because they're not full of ordinary plasma. These cells don't need oxygen; they're already... how do I describe this... _supercharged_."

"Wow. That sounds, uh, complicated," Will admitted, taking a seat on the stool in front of the microscope. "But why do we care?"

"We _care_, William," Nikola scowled, "because these little monsters might be more... sinister than we initially thought."

"What do you mean, 'sinister?' I thought we got rid of all of the multipedes. Except for the one you stole from the caverns."

"Ah, I _knew_ you saw that. There may be hope for you yet, Mr. Zimmerman."

Will looked annoyed. "Cut to the chase, Tesla. Are you saying the multipedes are still a threat?"

Tesla shook his head and bent forward to lean on the table, hands splayed. He lowered his voice, almost conspiratorially, and cocked his head toward Will. "Not the multipedes _themselves_, but their blood."

He straightened up again and began fiddling with some of the items on the table in front of him. Will hadn't taken the time to examine them yet but now that he did, he saw that, along with several blood slides, Tesla had out an array of medical instruments.

While Will watched, Tesla delicately grasped a vial of blood with his long, slender fingers. This blood was red, definitely not from the multipedes. Without taking his eyes off of the blood, Tesla picked up a syringe from table and drew some blood from the vial. He stared at the syringe almost _hungrily_, eyes wide and bright.

"Remember how the multipedes were drawn towards our blood, mine and Helen's?" He still wasn't looking, but Will nodded regardless. He felt that Tesla had probably forgotten he was in the room, anyway. His eyes had a distant quality, as if he were looking at something- or some_one_- very far away.

"I initially thought that they were attracted to the source blood because they sensed a familiarity, a kind of instinctual call toward kin," Nikola continued. "But I was wrong."

He took out a blank slide and let the needle of the syringe hover over it. Gently, he eased the plunger down, letting a small droplet of blood fall onto the tiny glass plate. He grabbed another syringe, already full of the multipede's murky blood, and dripped some onto the slide, letting the two mix together on the glass.

Will looked confused and opened his mouth to speak, but Tesla quickly silenced him. "Just wait," he said, nodding almost imperceptibly. He placed another clear glass plate on top of the first and carefully slipped it into the microscope.

"Watch."

Stepping up the microscope, Will looked on, astonished, as the magnified blood started to shift. At first the motion was barely visible but gradually the cells increased their pace, beginning to churn.

Puzzled, Will raised his eyes from the microscope and glanced over at Tesla who merely shook his head once. "Keep watching."

Will returned his attention to the blood and was astonished to note that the ordinary red cells appeared to be shriveling and dying. As he watched, the red cells visibly deteriorated. Within thirty seconds they were completely destroyed.

Will whipped around to face Tesla, amazed. "The multipedes weren't _attracted_ to your blood," he said, brow furrowed. "They were trying to destroy it!"

"Mm, sort of," Tesla said, narrowing his eyes and shrugging a shoulder, prevaricating. "It's not as simple as that, though I don't expect you to understand."

"Seriously?" Will said, annoyed. "Psychology _is_ a science, you know!"

Nikola just raised an eyebrow at him, smiling a smug little half-grin. Before that jab he had gone nearly five minutes without mocking the boy, a personal record for him.

"Okay, so, remind me why this is important to me?" Will asked.

"It's not, necessarily," Tesla said calmly, examining his fingernails. "At least, it doesn't _directly_ affect you. You have normal hemoglobin, after all."

"So this is all about you? _You're_ in danger so you brought me over here to show me your blood?"

"I didn't ask you to come in here," Tesla snapped at him, throwing up his hands. "You did that of your own accord. Besides," he said defiantly, his bright eyes boring into Will's own. "The blood isn't mine… It's Helen's."


	2. Chapter 2

"Okay, I'm not even going to ask you _how_ you got Magnus's blood," Will said, eyeing Tesla suspiciously. "But what are you saying here? Is Magnus in danger?"

Nikola started to pace around the lab, arms folded. He rubbed at his lips with one long finger. "That depends on what you mean by 'danger.'"

"Could you just give me a straight answer, for once?" Will asked angrily.

Tesla pursed his lips. "Yes, all right. She's 'in danger.'" He waved a hand rather flamboyantly. "You make it sound so _melodramatic_. Although it _is_ potentially fatal."

"What? Are you- Argh!" Will stuttered, groaning in frustration. He had had quite enough of the scientist. The man was absolutely infuriating. "You seriously need to work on your bedside manner."

Tesla smirked sarcastically at him, but Will forced himself to remain calm. Magnus was in trouble and Tesla, no matter how annoying, was the only one who knew why.

"So Magnus was exposed to the multipedes' blood? How?"

"Oh, we were all exposed," Nikola explained coolly. "Their blood, along with all sorts of nasty secretions, was all over the caves. You can't expect an entire species to exist in a contained environment for over a year without a little bloodshed."

Will was really starting to get worked up. "Why are you being so calm about this? Aren't you in danger, too?"

"Don't worry your pretty little head about that," Tesla grinned slyly. "As I said earlier, your blood is normal so you won't have any trouble at all. As for me, since I can no longer call myself a vampire, it's not much of an issue. As I'm sure you could tell by my little trick in the caves, there are still traces of the source blood in my body, but not enough to result in any serious ill effects."

"'Ill effects?' What do you mean?"

"Well, having your blood systematically attacked isn't exactly a walk in the park. It wears you down, little by little," Tesla said. "Have you noticed that Helen has been looking tired lately? And you know that she never falls ill, but she seems to be getting regular headaches."

Once Tesla mentioned it, Will realized that he _had_ noticed something off about Magnus lately. She was definitely sleeping much more than usual and when she was awake her face looked somewhat pale and pinched, as if she were struggling with a migraine.

"What about you?" Will asked. "You're not experiencing any of this?"

"Oh, I am," Nikola admitted quietly. "It's just not as bad for me."

Will looked closer at the scientist and was surprised to realize that he, too, looked exhausted and his hands, normally so steady, were trembling. Will almost felt guilty for not noticing these things earlier. His own battle with insomnia was dulling his senses, making him less observant.

"Okay, while that all sounds unpleasant, I must be missing the part where it becomes fatal," Will said.

"Ah, well, that's the interesting part," Tesla began to explain, his expression unreadable. "You saw the way the multipede's plasma attacked Helen's red blood cells. Imagine this happening all at once, all over your body. With every red blood cell gone, the strain on your body would be too great. You'd essentially die of bloodloss."

"Why hasn't that happened to Magnus yet, then?" Will asked, confused and a little worried.

Tesla sighed and ran a hand through his spiky hair, biting his lip. "I haven't quite figured that out yet. Maybe her lymphocytes have recognized the multipede cells as foreign invaders and are still trying to attack them first. It's only a matter of time, though, before they break through the body's defences and begin wreaking havoc."

"I don't like the sound of that," Will murmured. "What can we do?"

Nikola grimaced slightly, pointy teeth visible. His eyes flicked over to Will and seemed to be sizing him up before they quickly darted away. "There is one thing," he said slowly. "But you're not going to like it."

Will crossed his arms, groaning inwardly. He didn't like _anything_ that involved Tesla, but he was already implicated. He couldn't just go about his business while knowing Magnus was... dying. "Try me," he said, steeling himself.

"We'd have to go back to the multipedes' lair." He shook his head slightly, eyes trained on Will, waiting for his reaction. "We would need some more samples of the multipedes' blood in order to manufacture any kind of cure."

"You're right," Will said matter-of-factly, looking annoyed. "I _don't_ like it. Can't we just take the samples from the larvae you stole?"

Wincing, Nikola sucked in a quick breath through his teeth. "I'm afraid that's no longer a viable option. That _adorable_ little insect met a rather... unfortunate end."

"Oh, so, you killed it. Nice work."

Nikola held up a hand, gesturing vaguely. "Their exoskeletons are extremely tough. I had to cut it in half to expose enough flesh to extract its blood."

"It's actually quite disturbing how calmly you said that," Will said, looking disgusted. Tesla merely shrugged.

"There's no other way to do this? You can't just make a cure using the information you already have?"

"I'm a genius, not a miracle worker," Tesla retorted defensively. "I told you, I need more samples. Of course, if you don't feel like coming, I could just take the jet myself..." He trailed off hopefully, casting a sidelong glance at Will.

"Right, like I'm going to trust Professor Ulterior Motive to take a Sanctuary jet halfway around the world alone," Will sniped, nodding sarcastically.

"Can't blame a guy for trying."

Nikola carefully removed the slide from the microscope and disposed of it, wiping it clean before placing the blank glass plates in the sink. He then grabbed a scrap of paper and a pen from the lab table and composed a short note which he left lying next to the microscope. Removing the lab goggles from his disorderly hair, he strolled out of the room, talking boisterously to Will.

"And frankly," he continued with mock indignation, "I result the implication that I am anything other than scrupulous."

"Yeah, yeah. Save it for someone who's never met you," Will retorted, following after Tesla and feeling rather like an extremely underpaid babysitter.

A few hours later, Helen Magnus fancied that the Sanctuary was rather too quiet. Normally by this time Will was stalking around, muttering angrily about Nikola, and one could usually hear the distinct sounds of a blowtorch or some kind of electrical equipment. Most disturbing of all, perhaps, was the fact that her wine cellar seemed relatively intact, a sure sign that Nikola was not present.

The last place Helen had seen Nikola was the lab, so she thought she might as well see if he was still there, tinkering away at something. She peeked into the room and saw no sign of him, but something on the table caught her eye. She picked up the small piece of paper and saw the unmistakable, delicate script of Nikola Tesla.

**I've taken your pet human and the jet.**

**Don't worry.**

She smiled ironically. Worry and Tesla seemed to go hand in hand. One thing was definitely true, however; he certainly did make her life more interesting.


	3. Chapter 3

The caverns were as dark and as cold as Nikola last remembered, though this time they were considerably danker and a musty stench permeated the air. Water pooled as his and Will's feet, and he looked nonplussed as he examined his shoes. The explosion they had set off during their last visit must have nicked a water main somewhere in the hidden Cabal complex.

He glanced over at Will as they squelched noisily down one of the muddy tunnels. The younger man didn't even seem to notice the moisture. He was too busy sweeping his flashlight beam ahead of them, searching for any signs of life. _Good dog_, Nikola thought to himself. _Helen's trained you well._

"So, where do we start looking for these samples?" Will asked.

"Well, the nest in the lab is the ideal location. There's bound to be some... _remnants_, even if we did plant a bomb there. The cavern where they held me hostage is another likely place," Nikola said, his lip curling involuntarily.

"Okay. I think we should split up. That way we can cover more ground. Since you're the one with the crazy magnetic powers, I think you should take the lab." Will wasn't too excited about the idea of spending any more time with Tesla than was absolutely necessary. And how much trouble could the man get into in just a few minutes?

"My thoughts exactly," Nikola replied. He would rather not revisit the section of the caves where he had been trapped in a glorified spider web for nine days. "And if we encounter any delightful little creatures that survived our blast?"

"Our sanctuary walkies should work at this depth, so we'll be able to contact each other if we run into any problems."

Nikola nodded, gave Will a quick sardonic salute, and took off in the direction of the underground laboratory.

As Will watched Tesla leave, he couldn't quite shake the feeling that the man was withholding something from him. Not that the prospect wasn't entirely possible, given Tesla's proclivity for scheming. At the moment he had more important things to worry about than babysitting a tricky ex-vampire, so he merely shrugged and headed off toward the section of the caves where he hoped to find enough samples to cure Magnus's illness.

* * *

Nikola smiled to himself as he slogged down the cavernous tunnel towards the lab. True to form, he had a plan; it was already a good one, but Will was certainly making his life easier. He didn't even have to manipulate the situation so that he could search the lab for samples. Helen's lapdog _willingly_ gave him that job.

Nikola, being the clever scientist that he was, always had a contingency plan. If there was one thing he had learned in his hundred and fifty plus years, it was that nothing was ever easy. This is why he had prepared for every eventuality, no matter how ludicrous. He was certainly glad he had taken such steps as he made his way deeper underground. He chuckled as he recalled his brilliant plan. Despite what Helen had figured out, what she didn't surmise was that he had already gotten to the source blood before she and her team showed up to rescue him. When those pesky little insects had trapped him in their ooze, they had knocked the vial of blood from his hand, shattering it on the rocky floor below. Before the multipedes had secured his feet, he had managed to kick some dust over the broken glass, effectively burying it. If Will found it in his search for samples, he would just assume that the Cabal had inadvertently dropped a vial of blood during its habitation of the caves and, over time, the multipedes' movements had resulted in the vial's burial.

The most important part of this scheme was that there was a _second_ vial of blood, hidden safely within the destroyed lab. Nikola knew this because he had hidden it himself. In case he encountered some difficulties along the way, he had split the blood into two vials and buried the second tube in a fireproof metallic box in the lab. He hadn't envisioned a catastrophe such as the one involving the multipedes, but he knew that once Helen got wind of what he was experimenting with, she would be none too pleased.

Not that he blamed her. He imagined that the loss of a child would be a terrible thing to bear. He himself had lost family; he knew what that was like. Still, his experimentation could be the thing that restored his powers, that _gave him his life back_.

And so, as Nikola headed toward the very thing that could be his salvation, he was able to picture a world in which he was king.

* * *

As he inspected the tunnel for any signs of multipede blood, Will thought that he would love to know what went on inside Tesla's head. Sure, the man was a genius, but he was definitely... _unstable_. Untrustworthy, at the very least. For a person to have such monstrous delusions of grandeur there must be some serious issues in Tesla's past. He'd have to remember to ask Magnus about it sometime.

_Magnus,_ Will reminded himself. _There is that. _Tesla couldn't be all bad if he was helping save her life. As long as that was truly what he intended to do. Will never was sure with Tesla. One minute he said he loved Magnus and the next he tried to kill her. He didn't exactly have the best track record.

Will had almost reached the area of the caves where Tesla had been held hostage when he stopped suddenly and whipped his flashlight down to examine the stone at his feet. He sighed in relief. There was nothing there, other than mounds of dirt and stagnant water; he had thought he felt something moving, but it must have been his imagination. _Creepy caves are getting to me_, he thought to himself. _Calm down, Will. There's nothing there_.

He walked a few steps when he was forced to stop again. He really _did_ feel something, that time. There _must_ be something there. But, once again, all was still.

No, not still. Something was moving. Something… big?

Will squeezed up against the cavern wall and froze, trying to remain as still as possible. It was then, pressed against the cold, moist earth, that he realized it wasn't something _in_ the cave that was moving.

It was the cave itself.


	4. Chapter 4

The first thing Will noticed was the movement. The ground wasn't _supposed_ to be moving. And then he heard it, a dull, rumbling sound in the distance. The sound of a cave-in.

Will had been in enough cave-ins since coming to work for Magnus to know how to react. He instinctively felt for a small indentation in the wall, first ensuring that it was load-bearing so that it would not collapse on him. He huddled into the crevice and waited for the ground to stop quivering.

Once he had decided it was safe to move again, he stepped out of the crevice and swept his flashlight beam around the tunnel. He sighed in relief. Fortunately for him, his part of the cavern had not been affected. He could only hope that Tesla had been so lucky. Sure, he didn't exactly like the guy, but that didn't mean that he wanted him dead. Besides, right now he _needed_ Tesla in order to help Magnus.

Once he deemed it safe to make his way towards the lab, Will set off at a run. If something _had_ happened, he needed to get to Tesla is soon as possible to assess the damage. It was more than likely, however, that the cave-in had occurred in a part of the tunnel system that wouldn't directly affect either of them at all; it was just a precaution.

But as Will neared the Cabal laboratory, his heart started to sink. The damage started small enough- small bits of rocks and clots of dirt strewn about the passageway- but the closer he got, the more he realized how serious the situation was.

The cave-in must have originated right near the lab because that was where the damage was worst. Large chunks of stone and dirt littered the passageway, blocking each man on one side of the rubble. That is, assuming that Tesla was still alive.

"This is not good," Well said aloud, though there was no one there to speak to. "This is the _opposite_ of good."

His voice echoed off the stones, the sound mocking him. Will stood in the silence, trying desperately to devise a plan of action.

"One might even go so far as to say that 'this' is _bad_, William."

Will jumped back and looked around hurriedly, trying to figure out where Tesla's voice was coming from. The man had sounded muffled, masked by static… of course! The walkies! He hadn't even realized that he had switched his on.

"_Tesla! Can you hear me?"_ Will yelled into his walkie.

Through the static he was able to distinguish a deep sigh. _"Of course I can hear you, though that is… perhaps not the first question… you should be asking."_

Will puzzled over the pauses in the other man's speech. Were they caused by static interference, was it the difficulty of speaking through what was the equivalent of a solid wall, or had the scientist actually been caught in the cave-in?

"_Right. Are you hurt?"_ he yelled again, this time louder and perhaps a bit more desperate.

"_Mm, fine,"_ was the response, thought it was groaning, halting, and confused, almost as if Tesla was gritting his teeth against some kind of pain.

"_Tesla, I'm serious. If you're injured, I need to know about it!"_

"_It's _fine_, Will. Leave it alone," came_ the snappish reply, but even that did nothing to calm Will's nerves. Tesla _never _called him by his name.

"_Come on, give me _something_. Can you stand or walk?"_

"_Yes, I can do those things."_

"_Perfect!"_ called Will through the walkie. _"Then we can start working on clearing out these rocks so we can get what we came for and then get out of here."_

"_Better plan: you clear the rocks and I'll get the blood samples. I didn't have enough time to get them before the roof nearly collapsed on top of me."_

"_As long as you're sure you're okay. Magnus won't be too happy if I have to tell her that her ex-vampire is dead, although she might be relieved."_

"_Can it, Zimmerman. I'm twice the man that you are, even without my powers."_

At that, Will grinned. Tesla _must_ be okay if he was cracking jokes again.

"_Okay,"_ he called back. _"If you need anything, you know where to find me." _

Just before Tesla switched off his walkie, Will thought he heard the scientist groan. But he didn't have time to worry about Tesla at the moment. Soon he'd have the cave-in cleared away, Tesla would have the multipede blood, and they could get back to the Sanctuary where the danger level was relatively low. Most of the time.

Will grabbed a moderately sized rock and hefted it, tossing it to the side where it wouldn't get in the way. If he kept working at it, he'd be able to get Tesla out soon enough.

* * *

On the other side of the cave-in, Nikola Tesla was almost relieved. This was the perfect excuse: while Will moved rocks Nikola could retrieve the source blood from where he had buried it in the lab and Will would be none the wiser.

The only problem would be getting there. Other than the main obstruction, the tunnel was relatively clear of debris which would certainly make Nikola's life easier. If he could only get the pounding in his head to lessen and the room to stop spinning.

As it was, Nikola was slumped on the ground a few feet away from the fallen rocks, surrounded by all manner of stones and pebbles. Unfortunately, despite what he had told Will, he was in bad shape. He hadn't lied about the walking part- at least he didn't think so. He hadn't yet been able to summon the energy to attempt to stand- but he was beginning to suspect he was very seriously injured. He could feel a steady stream of warm, wet blood trickling from a cut on his head and, despite his abnormally high pain threshold, he couldn't suppress a hiss of pain when he raised a hand to his skull to probe the injury.

Growling in frustration, he gritted his teeth and wiped the blood from his eyes with his shirtsleeve before placing one hand on the wall of the cave and planting the other firmly on the floor. He knew he had been lucky not to have been crushed by the falling debris; he shuddered to think that his injuries could have been far more severe. His limbs could easily have been pinned under the boulders, his bones shattered and useless. The minute he had felt the ground starting to shake, he had started running for the lab, arms covering his head but, before he could reach the doorway, the rocks had started to fall.

He dove out of the way of the boulders but, in his haste, failed to calculate just how much space he had to manoeuvre. Fortunately he had been able to throw himself far enough that he wasn't buried alive, but his head had connected with the sharp stone of the cave wall and everything had gone black.

To add insult to injury, he was now going to have to wait for the Boy Wonder to dig him out of the rubble. Why couldn't he have been trapped with the hairy one? He was less gullible, but at least he was big. But if there was one thing Nikola Tesla wasn't short on, it was determination, and he'd be damned if he was going to sit around waiting for anyone. The Source Blood, the absolute crux of the mission, was so close he could almost taste it, and head injury or not, he was going to retrieve it. He could hear the faint scrabbling of his companion shifting rocks on the other side of the cave-in and told himself it was now or never.

He used his handholds to start to leverage himself up but was almost immediately overcome by a wave of dizziness. He started to pitch forward and thrust out a hand to break his fall. Closing his eyes, he shook his head slightly to rid himself of the niggling faintness and pushed himself to his feet, this time successfully. Once standing, though, the pounding in his skull increased to a nearly unbearable roar and he clutched his head with a rather undignified whimper.

Thirty feet, he told himself. Just thirty more feet.

He could just see the glimmer of the lab's doorframe when he swept his flashlight beam through the blackness of the tunnel. In his confused state, the darkness felt thick and oppressive, almost as if he were slogging through molasses.

He groaned in frustration. Walking was proving to be even more difficult than he had imaged and he leaned heavily against the cave wall. His suit was already a lost cause, covered in dirt and blood, so he paid no heed to the mud starting to cake on his shirtsleeve. He was panting with the effort of staying upright and conscious, but he managed to put one foot in front of the other as he slid his way down the tunnel.

After what felt like ages, his hands- groping blindly ahead of him- finally met the cold steel of the laboratory's doorframe. Nikola let out a sigh but resisted the urge to slump against the lintel. If he stopped to take a break now, he wasn't entirely sure that it wouldn't be his last.

Gripping the frame with waxy, pale fingers slick with his own blood, he propelled himself into the remains of the laboratory. With great difficulty, he ducked under fallen ceiling beams and clambered over fallen chairs and cabinets until he slid stiffly to a stop, kneeling at the back corner of the room. He scrabbled at the dirt with his sticky hands, grimacing. Ordinarily he would have been disgusted- he was a _scientist_. He didn't waste his time playing in the mud- but his head was muddled and the task at hand was requiring all of his concentration.

Finally, with a tiny _clink_, his fingertips brushed metal and he let out a sigh of relief. He had found what he had come for: the source blood.

He unearthed a small metallic box and fumbled with the latch, pulling out the small vial of blood. With shaking hands, he stashed the vial in the inner pocket of his suit and awkwardly forced his uncooperative limbs into an upright position.

He dragged himself across the room, stopping occasionally, partly to quash the dizziness that kept threatening to send him sprawling on the dirty floor and partly to collect a few samples of multipede blood. The trip would be wasted if Will got suspicious that Nikola was concerned about anything other than Helen's safety.

Five minutes and just as many stops later, Nikola had finally made it to the door of the lab, multipede blood clutched firmly in his hand as if it were the only thing tethering his tenuous grip on consciousness.

He scrubbed a hand wearily over his face- unconsciously adding more dirt and blood to the fine layer of sweat that had settled unpleasantly there- and started the arduous trek down the tunnel back to Will.


End file.
